CSBG Archive

Friday’s Trivial Pursuit

Long, long ago, back when the internet was new, one of the ways in which we amused ourselves on the forums here at this newfangled Comic Book Resources place was posting trivia quizzes. Our friend Rick D., in particular, was fiendishly clever at these and managed to make them almost completely Google-proof.

I was reminiscing about this with some other old CBR pals of mine and it reminded me that I’d been meaning to construct just such a quiz to post in this space, for old times’ sake.

As I’ve said many times, I’m a Bat guy and have been for decades, and since we all seem to have Batman on the brain around here lately anyway, I decided to make it a Bat Quiz. This draws from all eras of Batman, and not just comics but film and TV versions as well.

Just for fun, and because I’m getting rid of stuff anyway, I will even award a prize.

Do not, DO NOT post your answers in the comments section!! That just ruins things for everyone. If you are seriously competing, then please e-mail your answers to hatcher (at) monkeyspit.com, and put “Quiz” in the subject line. Feel free to comment but please, please, let’s not give away any answers down there, okay?

I did my best to make this Google and Wikipedia-proof but I daresay a determined cheat could still manage it. Just know that if you do that, well, you suck.

All clear? Then good luck!

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1. What were the first words Bruce Wayne ever uttered on the comics page…
…in his first appearance?
…in his first appearance as Batman?
…if you figure it chronologically, i.e., young Bruce?

2. In her FIRST pre-Crisis appearance, the Huntress initially crossed paths with which members of the JSA?

3. In her POST-Crisis appearances, which other DC crimefighter did the Huntress meet first? (I mean in terms of her timeline, not the actual publication.)

…and later, the first crimefighter she met was instead retconned to be?

4. According to the most recent version of DC’s history, Batman met Superman in Man of Steel #3, in pursuit of a criminal named “Magpie.” But when did Robin (Dick Grayson) first meet Superman?
…and when did the Jason Todd Robin first meet him?
…and the Tim Drake Robin?

5. On the television show Birds of Prey, Dinah Lance was NOT the Black Canary. Who was?

6. Who was Harvey Harris, and what Bat-character did he team up with? (Extra points if you can give me both the pre-and post-Crisis answers.)

7. According to Denny O’Neil (circa Knightfall) the Batmobile began as a customized version of what kind of sports car?

8. What kind of car did it begin as on the 1966 television show?

9. What was the underlying structure for the car’s design in the 1989 movie?

10. At one point Batman did actually marry Talia, the daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul. When was this and who performed the ceremony?

11. Who was the villain of the case that resulted in Batman acquiring the Batcave’s giant penny? (It’s not Two-Face, not even post-Crisis.)

12. How about the name of the villain of the case that provided the Batcave’s robot dinosaur?

13. Most of you probably know that Oswald Cobblepot is the Penguin and Selina Kyle is the Catwoman. But, who, pray tell, are the villainous alter egos of these nasty folks?

14. As noted above, Ra’s al Ghul once forced Batman to marry his daughter Talia in order to provide him an heir. As it happens, there was a television precedednt– another Bat-villain thought it would be a fine idea to force a marriage on Barbara Gordon. Who was this villain and what was his reasoning?

15. Who attended the wedding of Jim Gordon and Sarah Essen?

16. What was Eivol Ekdal’s “greatest creation”? (It appeared both in the comics and on TV…)

17. Alfred the butler has been linked romantically to several ladies over the course of his career. Two of them have had ongoing series of their own at DC. Can you name them?

18. When Dick Grayson was attending college at Hudson University, in his Robin identity he befriended the chief of campus security. What was that officer’s name?

19. How did Anthony Lupus cure his headaches? Who helped him do it?

20. Steve Ditko drew Batman once. Where did that story appear?

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There you have it. Remember, don’t answer in the comment section. E-mail only please. Answers down in comments will be disqualified (and deleted as soon as I see them.) If more than one contestant gets all twenty right, I will award the prize to the first set of answers received.

Oh, yeah, not even I could do this totally from memory. (I suspect Rick D. could, but HE’S insane. Burgas has no idea…) I just didn’t want people Googling for stuff so I tried to make that impossible. You can’t, I discovered, but I at least tried to make it HARD.

Dan

I could get maybe five of these off the top of my head, a few more with referencing books, but Cei-U! or someone will e-mail you with all of them anyway!

And the first words for Bruce Wayne, chronologically? Unless there’s an appearance where it’s like his first words EVER, that’s gotta be hard to know if you’ve got it right. I’ve seen a few introductions of Alfred in flashbacks, but the timeline of those have to be hard to judge. Tough stuff.

I’ve never been great at these things, but thanks for bringing it back! I’ve enjoyed them, even when I’m nowhere close to getting them all (which is pretty much always!).

Bill Reed

Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy!

The “Paul Dekker” thing is a total mistake; the version of the character using that name not only never encountered Batman, but was explicitly an unrelated character who happened to use the same name as the Batman-connected character for his alter ego. Sites that give that as the Batman-connected character’s name are badly mistaken.

Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy!

Yeah, the Crazy Quilt named Dekker was a fence who fought the Blackhawks while pretending to be insane so he could recover some hidden loot; the Crazy Quilt who backdoored into the Bat-Books after fighting Robin in Star-Spangled Comics #123 was actually named Quilt.

To be really fiendish, there’s the villain whose real name was unknown before Zero Hour, and has since been thrown into question anew, but whose “true identity” was Inmate #234026 at the state pen. Or ask for all three names used by Ned Creegan in his villainous career.

Kirayoshi

The villain behind the giant penny was CENSORED The ultimate penny-ante crook and officially the Last Villain Who Will Ever Appear in a Batman Movie Ever! Although Two-Face was responsible for the giant penny in the DCAU. Exchange from “Almost Got Him”:

Ivy: So what happened to the giant penny?
Croc: …it was a big rock…
Dent: They let him keep it, as a souvenir.
OTHER ANSWERS WERE CENSORED AS WELL. TSK.

Bill Reed

Da Fug

Speaking of bat trivia, some months ago Brian was asking when Batman’s disappearing-on-people-in-the-middle-of-a-conversation thing first happened. Did anyone ever figure out the actual issue? Just curious.

And I have a terrible geek memory. So this quiz is way beyond my abilities. I would’ve tried to google stuff if it weren’t being frowned upon. Though it looks like I may get quite a few of the answers just by refreshing the comments since there’s always SOMEONE who can’t bother to read the frickin’ rules >coughcough<.

Edo Bosnar

Wow, impressive quiz. Too bad I’ve always only been a somewhat peripheral Bat-fan (and I thought I was really hot a few years ago when I participated in another web quiz and was one of the few who knew that that actress who played both Batgirl and the original hot green alien babe on Star Trek was Yvonne Craig…)
Anyway, I think I know the answer to all of one of these questions (maybe two). Whoever wins really deserves an award. And I can’t wait to see the answers – I did not know Ditko drew a Batman story and really want to know where that appeared.

Is this still going on and did you decide on a prize? Two things I would like to know before I devote myself to this INSANE challenge.

It goes on till Thursday midnight. And yes, the prize is now edited in.

Look, you don’t have to get a perfect score, you just have to get the best score. Put it this way — a day later, Kirayoshi’s in the lead and he only got three right and broke a rule besides. C’mon, man up, you sissies! Give it a shot at least! What have you got to lose? You won’t even be embarrassed since the answers are e-mailed. I won’t tell on you if you make a really bad guess at something.

The Alfred question can’t be for real.

ALL the questions are for real. We have had Batman stories going on from 1939 till today. All kinds of crazy stuff happened.

Female leads in comics being as scarce as they are, you might do better to go down the list of lady headliners DC’s published and ask yourself which ones could plausibly have hooked up with Alfred, even just as part of a scam.

And the Batcave pin-up is from Dick Sprang. In 1995 Sprang created a large format (27″ by 35″) lithograph, “The Secrets of the Batcave” for the collector market. This numbered print was sold by Gotham Graphics and limited to 500. I desperately want one but I cannot in good conscience spend the money. We’re trying to strip things down around here anyway.

Sijo

I actually knew some of these answers, but I have FORGOTTEN them! For example, I *had* Huntress’ first pre-Crisis appearance in my collection, but I only remember ONE of the heroes who met her. Bummer!

Still, I can answer about 5 of the questions… I’ll check in next week and see what the others are. They *are* interesting!

Bright-Raven

“It goes on till Thursday midnight. Look, you don’t have to get a perfect score, you just have to get the best score. Put it this way — a day later, Kirayoshi’s in the lead and he only got three right and broke a rule besides. C’mon, man up, you sissies! Give it a shot at least! What have you got to lose? ”

Cripes. I figured Omar or Cei-U or someone would have already answered them all correctly by now.

Rebis

Wow, I’m left way in the dust here. I only know one or two, and could take educated guesses at only a couple more. Well done, Mr. Hatcher.

Incidentally, I too love the original (ie, Earth-2) Huntress. In my recollection, her first appearance involved not JSA members but the villain Huntress and her husband, the Sportsmaster, hunting Helena Wayne in an empty museum after dark. I have fond memories of that tale. I think Joe Staton drew it. Most likely that was an early story, but not her debut story.